Chapter 4

THE DESTRUCTION OF BRUNEI

AFTER THE Spanish expedition reached this island by the westward route from Europe, a disturbed time began for Borneo. At that time (the sixteenth century) Portugal was trying to increase its wealth by founding trading stations in Asia, and the Spaniards were doing the same in the islands near America. Columbus had discovered America only a few years before, and you would think that Spain had quite enough opportunities for trade with that continent alone. But the king of Spain wanted to trade in south -east Asia as well.

The Pope had tried to stop trouble by ordering the Spaniard to found colonies only west of a certain line of longitude. But they sailed west and reached the East! They took advantage of the discovery that the world is round. Once they reached the Philippines and Brunei, they knew that they could colonize in the East without disobeying the Pope's order.

As a result after 1521 the Spanish and Portuguese traders were continuously quarrelling with each other in the seas around Malaya in particular and Borneo to a smaller degree. Many Moslem traders became so disgusted with the fighting around Malacca that they left Malaya and settled in Brunei. The Sultan was glad to receive them in his state, because they built up its wealth and also spread his religion amongst the people. Some Portuguese traders too set up warehouses in Brunei and took part in its trading prosperity. Perhaps this made the Spanish traders jealous. They decided that they too would take a share of Brunei's trade and wealth.

Therefore further Spanish naval forces were sent from the Philippines towards the end of the century. Not content with trade alone, the Spaniards thought that they would rule the whole country. They even put a Malay in charge of Brunei as its Sultan. The people were angry about this and as soon as a good opportunity occurred they drove the so-called Sultan out of the country and put the real Sultan back on his throne once again. When news of this reached the Spanish Commander in Manila, his newly-built capital in the Philippines, he was very angry. He looked for an excuse to attack Brunei and easily found one. There was so much piracy going on in these waters, that it was easy for him to say that the pirates were using Brunei as a base. Some of them certainly were; even more must have been based on Manila itself. Nevertheless a Spanish fleet was sent to Brunei in 1645; under the pretence of stopping piracy they destroyed the whole town. Such was their revenge.

This was very harsh treatment, especially when we remember that it was the Spanish ship Victoria which had performed acts of piracy in the South China Sea.

The great town of Brunnei was no more; never since that time has it regained its former size in spite of rebuilding. After their act of destruction, the Spanish forces in the Philippines left Borneo to go its own way. But a new trading nation, Holland, then began to take an interest in the islands of the East.

The merchants from Holland, know as the Dutch, set up strong ststions and sent many ships into the seas near Borneo. Next they said that all merchants who wished to sell goods in China must first take those goods to a port ruled by the Dutch. From there the Dutch merchants themselves would take the goods to China. You will remember that there was a lot of trade between Borneo and China. This ruling was therefore a very hard blow. It meant that the Chinese merchants could no longer send their goods away from Borneo to China as they were used to doing. The Dutch would see to it that they gained little in selling produce to them for sending on to China. What could the Chinese traders do? If they tried to sail direct into China, thneir ships were captured. If they sold to the Dutch they got little profit. If they did not trade, they lost their livelihood. Therefore most of them left Borneo and returned to live and trade in China. This was a disaster for the trade of North Borneo. To make things worse, Sultan of Brunei had lost his town and wealth; he needed more wealth to build up his power again. Therefore his officers imposed very high taxes on the people. The harder they worked, the higher the taxes they had to pay. In desperation the people of North Borneo rose up in revolt against their hard lot. The Sultan could not put down the revolt on his own; so he made an alliance with the Sultan of Sulu, and between them they won the victory. After the fighting was over, all the land north of the Kimanis River was given to the Sultan of Sulu. Now most of North Borneo had a new master.

Life was very hard now and honest toil no longer seemed to pay any reward. As a result many men turned to crime; they became pirates and robbers and were soon the terror of land and sea. After this time Borneo acquired a very evil reputation. For a long time traders were afrail to come here. It was not really until Rajah Brooke arrived that the country was more or less pacified; but that was over 150 years later. During that time North Borneo progressed very little if at all.

QUESTIONS